


Space in this World

by IntoTheRiverStyx



Series: Requests/challenges/etc [23]
Category: The Old Guard (Comics), The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Feel-good, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-09
Updated: 2020-12-09
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:07:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27978576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IntoTheRiverStyx/pseuds/IntoTheRiverStyx
Summary: When the world isn't in immediate need of what only they can offer, Nicky and Joe are still able to offer things not found elsewhere.Nile wants to hear their stories, and they are more than happy to talk about each other.
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Series: Requests/challenges/etc [23]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1673452
Comments: 1
Kudos: 68





	Space in this World

**Author's Note:**

  * For [WeCouldPretend](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WeCouldPretend/gifts).



How many years had it been? Three? Five? Twenty? Did years matter anymore? To Booker perhaps they did, the man likely counting down his time left in exile, learning what it meant to repent sins he hadn't meant to commit.

But they were not Booker.

It had been a strange thing, Andy, her wounds stopping the healing process mid-way through and just _staying there_ , open and red and weeping as if they'd just been inflicted, a reminder that, one day, their personal clocks would run out without warning.

A reminder to treasure what they had.

And that's why they were sitting in an abandoned factory, passing a bottle of sparkling cider around like it was spiked, telling Nile stories of when the team was whole, of times when missions weren't happening and life wasn't rushing past them.

“I still can't believe you met in the crusades,” Nile was laughing, her smile still so young and the sound of it a think untempered by the centuries she would one day live through.

“Neither can I,” Nicky admitted, “but I have yet to find a word strong enough and true enough to express how thankful I am such a horrible thing brought me such wonder.”

“Love,” Joe said with a small chuckle, “The word I have found is love.”

“Love,” Nicky agreed, “Yes, that fits the feeling.”

“It almost feels like I'm interrupting,” Nile half-joked.

“Oh, no,” Joe's laugh was one of joy, “If you were interrupting you would not have to question it.”

“Noted,” Nile's smile didn't show any signs of fading, “And, really, thank you, for all these stories.”

“You deserve to know who we were,” Nicky told her, “What we were.”

“You didn't exactly meet us at our best, as a team,” Joe agreed.

“But you two,” Nile looked from one to the other band back again a few times, “you two were at your best through the entire thing.”

“Even the worst things are easier together,” Joe told her as he grabbed Nicky's hand and squeezed it.

“It's amazing,” Nile took a swig of the cider and passed it to Nicky, who passed it to Joe without taking a sip.

“There is more potential and more unknowns in one decision made than there is in the static existence of the cosmos,” Nicky said it like it was a private thing, “and every day, I choose him.”

“Time,” Nile picked each word as she said it, “seems to have given you both more insight and experience with the best parts of the human condition than any philosopher would have thought possible.”

“Not time,” Joe disagreed, “each other.”

“Were that we all so lucky,” Nile said it without really meaning to.

“I hope you find it one day, too,” there was no room in Joe's tone to doubt he meant it, “and I hope you find out without having to kill them first.”

Nile laughed – she couldn't help it – and any tension over what they had that Nile didn't that was trying to form dissolved.

“Not that we haven't done dumb things together,” Nicky was grinning and Joe rolled his eyes. Whatever story was coming, it was clear Joe knew which it was.

“Paris?” Joe shook his head.

“Always Paris,” Nicky's grin became a smile, a wild thing that time would never tame no matter how hard it tried.

“What happened in Paris?” Nile asked.

“He started it,” Joe jerked his head towards Nicky.

“It was my idea,” it sounded like a confession, “The Eiffel Tower was almost finished and wasn't open to the public just yet.”

“Oh no,” Nile's hand covered her mouth and her eyes went wide, “I think I know where this is going but I want to know if I'm right.”

“We climbed it in the dead of night,” Joe couldn't help the little laugh that escaped, “parachutes on our backs.”

“Oh no,” Nile repeated, but a small laugh that was just a little too sharp to be a giggle, “Keep going.”

“The jump went off just fine,” Joe ran a hand through his hair, “but we didn't expect the wind.”

“That isn't where I thought this story would go,” Nile admitted.

“We didn't go where we thought we would go,” Nicky laughed, “I wound up on top of the Arc de Triomphe.”

“And I wound up in the river,” Joe shook his head, “about a kilometer away. Had to take the entire parachute off and try not to swallow any water.”

“Try not to swallow any water?” Nile asked.

“It was a river in a large city in the late eighteen-hundreds,” Joe grimaced, “I'll leave the rest up to your imagination.”

“A river in a...oh. _Oh!_ ” Nile's eyes went wide, “Okay, sorry I asked, that's. Ew.”

“Ew is a good word for it,” Joe agreed, “Once I was free of the parachute harness, I was able to swim to shore. I stripped down to the fewest clothes possible and started walking towards the Tower in hopes that, where ever he landed, he'd make his way back there, too.”

“And did you?” Nile asked Nicky.

“I would have,” Nicky shook his head, “if there hadn't just so happened to be a policeman on a patrol walk who saw _someone wearing a giant sheet_ landing on the Arc.”

“You got arrested?” Nile guessed.

“Even before dawn, I heard whispers of an idiot who'd been spotted on the Arc but nobody had seen him climb up,” it was Joe's turn to shake his head, “I realized, _Oh no, that's probably my idiot._ ”

“How'd you get him out?” Nile had no idea when she'd been handed the cider or why she was holding onto it without taking a drink from the bottle, but she figured it was likely how badly she wanted to know how this particular adventure ended.

“It was not my first time breaking _into_ a jail,” Joe told her.

“Not even the first time he'd broken into a jail to break me out,” Nicky put his hand on top of Joe's thigh, just behind the top of his kneecap, “but those are other stories.”

“I'm listening,” Nile told them. _Nicky and Joe,_ she thought, _Nicky-and-Joe,_ she amended. They were, she realized, two people but also a single thing, a shared experience bound only nominally by the physical.

The evening faded into night, which faded into hunger and a need for something to drink, the emptying of the cider bottle barely noticed as stories spilled out of Nicky and Joe.

“I can go pick us up a pizza or something,” Nile offered, “I want to hear more of these stories.”

“Pizza sounds good,” Joe told her.

“Food sounds good,” Nicky added, “Thank you.”

“No problem,” Nile assured them, “I'll find you both here still, yeah?”

“Well you certainly won't find me on top of any monuments,” Nicky laughed. Joe elbowed Nicky in the stomach and Nicky laughed even harder.

“I'll be back a soon as I can,” Nile rolled her eyes, “I promise not to eat the entire pizza on the way back.”

“I have to say, I wasn't worried about that until you said it,” Nicky informed her.

“Be safe,” Joe told her.

And it was always that way – be safe instead of be careful – because all the care in the span of human existence didn't mean safety followed in its wake.

They watched her go, her outline fading into the darkness, the light filtering in from the not-so-abandoned places surrounding them turning her into a shadow the further she got from them.

“She's doing great,” Joe said once he was sure Nile was outside.

“I like to imagine this is what Andy was like when she was a new immortal,” Nicky shifted so he could rest the back of his head on Joe's lap, “Fierce, curious, so determined to know all the things she could possibly fit into her mind.”

“I would never wish for the loneliness they both must feel,” Joe said as he started playing with Nicky's hair absently, “yet I am grateful they've found ways to turn their pain into purpose.”

“I fear I could not turn my pain into purpose if I ever knew that loneliness,” Nicky said as he drew a deep breath in.

“The world put us to this fate together,” Joe knew Nicky needed no reminding, “Just us.”

“Perhaps what we share was needed,” Nicky grabbed Joe's hand and kissed his knuckles.

“I would not be to vain to think I could be so important,” Joe said but then quickly added, “but what we have is bigger than either us could have been alone.”

“Being with you has given me so much more purpose than any mission ever could,” Nicky closed his eyes and let Joe's hand in his hair become his every sense of where he was in the world.

“Tell you what meaning you have given me, what a gift loving you has been, I will never tire of it,” Joe held his index and middle fingers together, kissed the tips, and then transferred the kiss to Nicky's forehead.

“I will never tire of you,” Nicky promised him.

“Nor I of you,” Joe felt the promise settle into even the darkest parts of his heart that he kept away from the rest of the world.

They stayed there for a while, so absorbed in the idea that _someone who has given me a sense of place in this world that constantly gets left behind while I march forward_ was there, with them, they with each other, that the fact the floor of the abandoned factory was probably disgusting and it was starting to get cold even inside the building did not dare to reach them.

When Nile came back with the pizza and a six-pack of twenty-ounce bottles of Sprite, there were only two slices missing.

“Quality control inspection,” Nile informed them before they asked her if it was good, “and it passed just fine.”

“Well good,” Joe teased her, “I'd hate to hear what quality control thinks of the serving environment, though.”

Nile pulled a small lantern out of her bag and turned it on so they could all see the food.

“QC's off for the night,” Nile shrugged, “Tell me what it was like the first time you two flew in an airplane.”

“Not while we're eating,” Nicky told her as he grabbed a slice.

Nile made an indignant sound meant to tease, and when Nicky laughed in response, she felt relief she hadn't expected she needed to feel.

And when the sun's first rays filtered through the broken factory windows, little streams of dust illuminated by the dawn's rising to greet them, Nile had never felt more like there was room even in this century for love and belonging to simply be.


End file.
